Genocide Convention

 

The UN Convention Against Genocide
http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cppcg/cppcg.html

Article 1
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3
The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d ) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article 4
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals. (partial excerpt)

 

George Bush, Ariel Sharon, Saddam Hussein and many other tyrants are in violation of the Genocide Convention. Fortunately, the new International Criminal Court is now in session, and it would be nice to see it have the power, money and courage to charge those who plan and commit genocide from the ruling countries of the world (and not merely the genocides committed in poor countries in Africa).